Post office wasted $1.2M on Simpson stamps

Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, signs a poster at the unveiling of the new 'The Simpsons' U.S. postage stamps in Los Angeles.

We don’t know whether to say “d’oh” or “ay carumba!”

The U.S. Postal Service — yes, the same folks who could lose $15 billion with a B this year — managed to waste money faster than the free doughnuts at the Springfield nuclear power plant when it came to Simpsons stamps.

The Simpson stamps, sold in 2009 and 2010, came in five designs featuring Homer; his wife, Marge; and their children, Bart, Lisa and baby Maggie. The stamps sold for 44 cents, 1 cent less than it costs now to mail a letter.

While the Simpsons stamp was the most overproduced during 2009 and 2010, the service also produced more stamps that it sold in those years featuring the lunar new year, civil rights movement figures, Zion National Park, Supreme Court justices, historic U.S. flags, film director Oscar Micheaux and a Christmas stamp showing an angel with a lute.

Stamps that weren’t sold were destroyed. One difference now is that the post office sells “forever stamps” that don’t have a fixed price.

Though we can imagine that Sideshow Bob enjoyed the destruction of the stamps. And somewhere, Mr. Burns is saying, “Excellent.”